Oscar Piastri isn’t pretending Monza is going to be kind to him. While the McLaren garage basks in the glow of back-to-back wins for his team-mate, Piastri is bracing for a circuit that could strip away every advantage that made Hungary and Zandvoort look so easy.
Lando Norris has taken pole and won both races since the summer break, at circuits built on short straights and long, grippy corners. Monza is the opposite of that in almost every respect. It’s the fastest track on the calendar, and last year both the pole lap and the overall race time records were smashed there. If McLaren‘s revival has a weak spot, this is the weekend it gets found.
A Car That Doesn’t Like Straight Lines
The uncomfortable truth for McLaren is that the MCL40 is a draggy car, and drag is precisely what you don’t want at a venue where more than half the lap is spent at full throttle. The team has been candid about this limitation for a while now, and Piastri isn’t dressing it up as anything else.
Speaking to media including RacingNews365, Piastri was blunt about how little Hungary and Zandvoort tell anyone about Monza.
“I mean, it’s difficult to know because these two circuits are quite similar in characteristics: very short straights, a lot of corners, and generally quite long corners. Monza is going to be a completely different beast for a number of reasons, but we’ll have to wait and see if this pace translates to other circuits.” – Oscar Piastri
That’s not false modesty. It’s a driver who has spent the year fighting a car that punishes him more than it punishes his team-mate, now staring down a track layout that plays to almost none of McLaren’s recent strengths.
The Real Story Isn’t the Title Fight, It’s the Gap Between Team-mates
Everyone wants to talk about whether Norris can win a championship. Fair enough, given the run he’s on. But the more revealing story sitting right next to it is why Piastri, who was genuinely fighting near the front of this field not long ago, is now scrapping to keep pace with his own team-mate rather than the opposition.
The numbers make grim reading. His last podium finishes of note came earlier in the year, and since then it’s been a steady accumulation of afternoons where the pace simply wasn’t in the car, or wasn’t in him, depending on who you ask.
Piastri isn’t hiding from it either.
“I think in the races, the rear of the car is very tricky to drive, and even in qualifying, the last few weekends it’s been difficult, but that weekend in qualifying was much nicer, and I felt much more confident. And I think at certain points of the race, I felt a lot better with that, but it is just that the pace hasn’t been there. It’s not the first race this year that that’s been the case. Some have been good, some have been very strong, but there have been too many now that have been really a long way off.” – Oscar Piastri
That’s about as honest an admission as you’ll get from a driver mid-season. No blaming strategy, no vague talk of “bad luck”, just a straightforward acknowledgement that the pace hasn’t been there often enough.
Why Monza Could Make Things Worse Before They Get Better
Here’s the uncomfortable part for Piastri specifically. His driving style, more linear on the brake and throttle, tends to generate rear tyre temperature spikes on lower grip surfaces, and this year’s reduced downforce levels have amplified that weakness. Norris, by contrast, uses a more overlapping brake-throttle technique that helps rotate the car through the rear axle, which has made him noticeably more adaptable as track characteristics shift.
Monza doesn’t demand mechanical grip through long corners in the way Zandvoort or the Hungaroring do, but it punishes any car that isn’t efficient in a straight line, and McLaren’s shortest-permitted-wheelbase design philosophy, while useful for weight distribution, leaves less floor area to generate rear downforce. In other words, the very trait that makes the MCL40 competitive on twisty tracks could be the trait that leaves it exposed on the Autodromo Nazionale’s long straights.
There’s a reason the paddock is treating this weekend as a genuine litmus test, not just for Norris’s title credentials as covered in our earlier look at James Hinchcliffe’s Monza comments, but for whether McLaren’s whole recent form is a genuine step forward or simply a product of favourable circuits.
Piastri Isn’t Chasing Excuses, Which Might Be the Problem
What’s notable about Piastri’s public stance is the complete absence of conspiracy talk or grievance. No suggestion that McLaren favours Norris, no hint of frustration directed at the team, just a driver methodically explaining where the deficit comes from and accepting that it’s mostly down to a car characteristic he hasn’t yet found a way around.
That maturity is admirable, but it also means there’s no easy narrative fix here. If the car simply doesn’t suit Piastri’s style on lower grip surfaces, that’s not something resolved by a pep talk or a strategy tweak, it’s a structural issue that could follow him deep into the remaining rounds.
McLaren sits third in the constructors’ standings, and Piastri, meanwhile, is fighting a quieter battle just to stay relevant in his own team’s story. Monza won’t fix that. If anything, it looks more likely to expose exactly how far behind he’s fallen.
